Crave's guide to World Cup gadgets: Part One
It's the World Cup, but for inexplicable reasons you find yourself in paid employment and it's cramping your style. Here's Crave's guide to the gear you need to bring football home to your desk...
Crave is jetting off to Germany next week to watch England's match against Sweden, so excuse us if we're a little distracted with the excitement of it all. To keep ourselves busy until then, we've been fine-tuning our gadget collection to make sure we have everything we need to get the most out of the next four weeks of nail-biting action. Here are some gadgets that will help you keep an eye (or ear) on the pitch at work...
Asus Lamborghini VX1
With the BBC broadcasting all its World Cup games live on the Internet, you'll be needing a decent monitor at work to watch the action. If you're not able to persuade your tech support staff that you need a larger monitor to see all the columns in the company's financial spreadsheets, then it may be worth investing in a laptop of your own. One of the sexiest laptops currently on the market is the Asus Lamborghini VX1 (pictured). With its 15-inch SXGA panel, which has a native resolution of 1,400x1,050 pixels, you'll be able to get a detailed view of the matches. The 2GHz dual-core Intel processor and 2GB of RAM should give you enough processing power and memory to get on with work between games. At £1,899, it's a luxury laptop, but worth splashing out just to be able to say you own a Lamborghini. Just hope that no-one asks you for a lift.
PURE PocketDAB 2000
If you can't get away with watching the World Cup at work, digital radio is a good alternative. The BBC will be providing live radio coverage of all World Cup matches on Five Live, so you'll be able to keep up with the action on the 2pm game while you're at your desk or in long, dull meetings. The PURE PocketDAB 2000 (pictured), which costs £120, is a good option for listening to digital radio at work or on the go. Weighing only 160g it's easy to carry around and has good quality playback, although make sure you avoid any meetings in the basement of the building as you may lose the signal. The PocketDAB should also come in handy for listening to the match on your way home.
Sennheiser MX 500 headphones
If your boss has banned you from watching the football, it may be worth investing in some stealth headphones. Unfortunately wireless headphones tend to be bulky over-ear ones, such as these Logitech headphones, which would be difficult to hide under even a Nelson Valdez's
head of hair
. We're keenly waiting for the day that wireless headphones, the shape and size of a mobile phone Bluetooth headset, become available. Until that day, one of the best options is to get some in-ear headphones with a long cord, such as the Sennheiser MX 500. These have good sound quality and a long lead that you can run under your hair and shirt, attaching it to your DAB player clipped into the back of your trousers.
Google homepage
Let's face it, it's unlikely that you'll be able to get away with watching or listening to all the World Cup matches from your desk. But that doesn't mean you have to miss out. Personalising your Google homepage offers an easy way of keeping half an eye on the latest World Cup action without wasting the entire day. Simply go to Google UK, click on the Personalised Home link in the top right-hand corner and it will then give you the option to display various things on your homepage, including information on the World Cup. The World Cup information bar displays live information on goals scored, yellow and red cards, and substitutions. In other tabs it displays information on the results and upcoming fixtures, and on the rankings within each of the World Cup groups. -IM